Still wrenching away. Remounted the drivers seat using locally available hardware store materials, lifting it 3 inches and more firmly to the vehicle. Amazing what a better mounted seat does to the clutch feeling.

I've also decided to be relentless about the making of the definition file used in the tuning software to modify the vehicles bin/tune. And I'm finally making some good headway.

Most importantly, finding the correct conversion equation to get the raw ignition timing data into actual crankshaft degrees...still working on it, but I'm getting closer.

Also, just as an experiment I mounted up a universal 90mm EBay throttlebody I've had floating around my stuff. Then made a 4" intake & MAF housing.

Also, in my time tuning this car I've noticed that it would never cell hit trace in the idle fuel and idle timing maps, like it was in a limp mode at idle. Notice the lack of IAC? As a test I decided to put a load on the IAC wiring in the form of LED's

Success, tricked the computer out of limp mode and is now using the idle fuel & timing maps.

Made some headway on a project I'd been wanting to do for a long time. Deleting the MAF sensor by using a MAF simulator called the MAFT-Pro.

I was having trouble getting the unit to run my engine wired and programmed the way it was intended for. So I came up with another plan.

Datalog the actual MAF output voltages based on MAP kPa and engine RPM. Then recreate those voltage outputs at the same driving conditions.

The MAFt has a 17x15 cell user tunable VE table that is MAP kPa y-axis & RPM x-axis. It also has a setting to send the currently used VE cell/figure out of the unit as an analog voltage.

My first hurdle was to change the 3bar MAP reading to a one bar in order to utilize the entire range of Histogram (and thus VE) table.

With the unit powered up and MAP sensor open to atmosphere I get a reading of 84kPa (At almost 6k feet altitude). I figure this naturally aspirated engine won't be seeing more MAP pressure then open air so I set the grid max to 86kPa/3.9v. I realize I might need to set it up differently for the long term in order to take the car out of my mile-high town.

During an initial test I found that my engine idles around 40kPa (mind you this is MAP sensor kPa readings, not -kPa in vacuum), cruises around 30kPa and deceleration in gear with engine over-run went just below 20kPa. So I set my Y-axis minimum at 22kPa/1v. I figured giving this window of MAP kPa readings would cover the basic engine operating conditions and utilize all 17 cells of Y-axis for tuning resolution.

The next was to figure out what VE figure equaled what output voltage from the unit. So I just simply just went 1 by 1 in the VE map and noted the output voltage:

1=0.03v, 2=0.07v, 3=0.11v....25=0.97v....50=1.95v....77=3.00v etc. With a max of 127.5 = 4.98v and every .5 of VE figure equaled 0.02v between the values.

The next step was to go log some mileage getting as much MAF output data as possible. Hitting as many cells as possible to build an average of each one. After two days of driving over a couple hundred miles of mixed full throttle banging out each six gears and then completely docile feather throttle and everything in between I was confident I had enough MAF datalogging to build the emulator map.

The unusually out of place low readings meant that data tracing didn't hit those cells enough to build an average. Blank ones didn't hit at all.

There are two things that caught my attention after seeing the results. First, during the WOT throttle runs there are some RPM's that still had manifold vacuum even with the ridiculously oversized 90mm throttlebody and 4" intake tubing and 4" maf housing.

2nd, the max MAF output voltage recorded was 4.86v...almost maxing the physical capability of the MAF sensor itself at 5v. And that happened before redline RPM.

Transferred the dataloged MAF voltages over to the corresponding VE number to equal that emulated voltage and built a 3d map:

I then filled in the blank cells and smoothed things over a bit.

Then uploaded my new data into the emulator and wired it into the MAF input of the car. Removed the intake tubing and MAF sensor:

Initial impression after test drive: This mod has completely transformed the car. The power is instantly there. Before, with the MAF the AFR's would swing back and forth as the MAF voltage oscillated. Now, they are solid as the emulator is giving a solid voltage output based on operating condition. The fuel delivery responds instantly to manifold vacuum changes instead of measured air mass before the throttlebody.

I've got a world of more tuning to do to get the AFR's where I want them when I want them but really I'm ecstatic about getting that MAF out of there.

Decided to start putting together the next engine, a late 90's BMW 4.4: V8 M62B44 shortblock using the M60B40 cylinder heads and cams (Slightly larger valves and cam durations then B44)

M62 shortblock:

M60 junkyard motor to donate it's heads and misc parts:

The new build will be force fed by an Eaton M112 from a Jaguar:

I always prefer to use head studs for every engine build, especially since making the decision to go supercharged.

The single timing chain and problematic M62 timing U-guide have been swapped out for the M60 double roller chain and idle sprocket, & crank gear.

The heads will be sent out for rebuild, I am strongly considering having the block sent out for piston ring end gap work to offset increased cylinder pressures and heat.

I've also been working on getting away from the Bosch Motronic operating system and instead experimenting with a DIY opensource EFI called Speeduino. An Arduino Mega 2560 based board that uses TunerStudioMS for tuning, same as MegaSquirt.

The EFI transplant is happening in steps, since the Speeduino has 4 injector driver outputs and 4 ignition outs it'll run the V8 in semi-batch fire and waste spark by pairing up the cylinders that are 360 degrees apart from each other.

Here I've started grafting the Speeduino board to a gutted BMW ecu case with the pinouts for a plug'n'play type set up

Converted the BMW COP dumb coils to full MSD 4 channel waste spark ignition that can be triggered by the Speeduino.

The plan is to get the Speeduino EFI running and tuned on the naturally aspirated engine and have it ready for the supercharged engine once it's assembled.

Since this build is a mixed bag of nuts...and bolts. It's probably good to know where engine specs such as compression will land.

CC'd combustion chamber:

Measures piston to deck height:

Noticed the pistons were slightly dished. Needed to get that dish volume:

Plugged the newly acquired info into a compression calc, then took the static compression figure and plugged into a dynamic/elevation/boosted compression calc to give an idea of where things will land at my elevation with the planned boost levels (8psi).

The plan is to run it on 91 pump fuel available where I live, there's no E85 pumps anywhere near me. Here's to hoping I can keep IAT's down